The way Pythia looked at him, I thought for sure she was going to say something about the other day when the same thing had happened to her. But she didn’t.
Later in the dorm room, Georgina asked me, “What did you do to Revana? She came out of the room with smoke blowing out of her nose. She said you were going to pay.”
I shrugged. “I didn’t do anything. She didn’t pass the trial and blamed me for it.” I collapsed onto my bed and turned toward the wall, tucking my legs up. I didn’t want to talk about what had happened to anyone.
Today was a hard day, and I knew it was just going to get even harder. Right now, we weren’t being pitted against each other much, but I knew it was coming. Today, it was Revana, what if tomorrow it was Georgina, or Jasmine, or even Lucian? Could I protect my friends while I protected myself? I really hoped so because I didn’t want to face the alternative.
Chapter Twenty-Two
MELANY
Before heading into the hall of Aphrodite for our next trial, Lucian caught me and pulled me aside.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good.”
He lifted his hand and touched my puffy, sore lip. Revana’s fist had split it open. “What happened? The rumor is you cheated or something, causing Revana to fail the trial.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “And what do you think?”
“I think that’s bullshit.”
“Exactly.” I beamed at him, happy he didn’t believe the stupid rumor.
He smiled and tugged me close for a quick hug.
“How did you do in the trial?”
He hugged me tighter. “Not good. I didn’t pass it.”
I pulled back and looked him in the eyes. “I’m sorry.”
He shrugged. “It’s one fail. I don’t plan on failing any others.”
Aphrodite looked like a gold statue, as she stood on her little dais in her hall and addressed us. “My trial is one of deception. Over the past few months, you’ve learned how to transform your body into something else. From human to animal. For this trial, you will transform yourself into a goat.”
That got a few snickers from the group.
“The object of this will be for your peers to pick you out of a herd of goats. If they do, you fail. In the old days, we would’ve slaughtered the goats one by one to reveal your identity, but we won’t be doing that here.”
I shared a horrified look with Jasmine. “Yikes.”
Half of the group was escorted out of the room, while the rest of us stayed. So when the door opened again, and ten goats came scampering in, we didn’t know whom it was that had transformed into a goat right away. It was smart to do that because it was possible that someone could still retain some defining feature, like a mole or a scar.
Our goal as a group was to examine each goat and then make a unanimous decision on which goat wasn’t really a goat. I didn’t have to voice my thoughts, but I was sure we all pretty much agreed not to out anyone if we spotted any obvious discrepancies in goats. This was one time when we could help out our peers.
After we all looked over the ten goats, we came together and made a decision. We agreed on picking the all-white goat. Jasmine was our spokes person.
She pointed to the white goat. “We think that one is an imposter.”
Aphrodite nodded. “Very well.”
She then snapped her fingers, and eight of the goats turned back into our peers, including the one we’d picked. The goat turned out to be Lucian.
My stomach churned. I stared at him in horror.
Aphrodite stepped off the dais and moved toward us. Her gaze flashed with blue fire. “Don’t mess with me.” She then gestured to the students picking themselves off the ground. “You all passed, except for you, dear.” She pointed to Lucian. “You failed, thanks to your friends here.”
Wow. Aphrodite was a real nasty piece of work. I was going to have to watch her more closely.
We took more care with the next group of goats that came in and thankfully didn’t pick anyone. When it was my turn to transform, I did it as quick as I could, hoping that I did it well. There were no mirrors around, so I couldn’t take a look at myself and fix any issues. Other goats joined me in the lobby; I didn’t know if they were actually goats or my friends. The doors opened and we all ran into the room.
I tried to be as goat-like as I could. I made goat noises and butted my head into another goat, which I hoped was an actual animal and not one of my friends. Revana and her crew were part of the observing party. As she moved through the herd, she kicked at each animal. After seeing what I did from her past, I wanted to feel sorry for her, but the truth was she was not a good person.
When she neared me, she booted me in the side. Pain rippled over my body, and I wanted to whip my head around and nip her in the ass, but I didn’t. Instead, I bleated at her and moved along to stand next to a little brown goat.
After a few tense moments of the group conferring, Revana pointed to a medium-sized black and white goat. “That’s not a goat.”
Aphrodite nodded and then snapped her fingers. Me, Jasmine, Georgina, Ren, and Mia all popped into existence. As did Ren’s roommate Marek, but he’d been the one they’d pointed out. He’d failed the trial.
That night in the dorm, Georgina told me how scared she was for the rest of the trials.
“I’ve passed five of them, but I still need to pass three more, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to as they’re going to be the more physical ones.”
“You’re strong, Gina. Stronger than I think you even know.” I grabbed her hand. “And if I can help you during any of the trials, you know I will.”
Once more, my sleep wasn’t all that good. I had dreams this time, of darkness and shadows. And I wondered if it was some kind of portent of things to come.
Hera’s trial was very much like a locked room adventure. I’d done one with Callie and her friends. Everyone had spent the time arguing, so we never made it out. For the trial, we’d be in a group of five, and we had to use our knowledge of the Gods to uncover clues inside a room to discover another door, to move on to the next room. We had to clear three rooms in an hour. The team with the worst timed score failed the trial.
We got into our usual group, me, Jasmine, Georgina, and Mia. Ren decided to go into another group with Marek to make sure he didn’t fail another trial, which made room for a new member to our group—Lucian. I was confident that our group would make it through the rooms in record time, as everyone had done well in history class. I was probably the weakest link this time.
Once we were locked in the room, I grabbed Lucian’s hand. “I’m so sorry for yesterday.”
He shook his head. “Don’t be. It’s okay.”
“But you failed—”
“I won’t fail anymore. Especially not this one.” He gave me a soft smile.
Together, we worked through the puzzles in record time. At least we thought it was record time, as we didn’t know the other teams’ scores. After every group finished going through the rooms, we found out that we had come in second place. Ren’s team had come in first, which I was very happy to hear. Revana’s team came in last. That meant she had two fails so far. Not that I was celebrating. Okay, maybe I was just a little.
That night, I slept long and hard. I needed it to be fresh for Hermes’s flying trial. I had no doubt that Lucian and I would do well, but I couldn’t count out running into problems. Problems like Revana and her crew. It was no secret that the word in the halls was that they were out to get me. I had to watch my back.
Hermes met us out on the training field. He wore a blue polka dotted bow tie today, which I thought was really cute.
“This trial will be a race. Since flying is a fundamental part of your training as a soldier, only the first twenty-five flyers will pass this trial. The other half of the group will fail.”
I glanced at Georgina and Jasmine. We all knew that the trials were going to get tougher. This was just an example of that. I was worried for Georgina. She was not a strong flyer.